"The Longest-Sought, Hardest-Fought Prize
in the History of Arms Control"

On September 22, President Clinton sent the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) to the
United States Senate for advice and consent to ratification. The CTBT will require all signatory
nations to join the United States in the permanent termination of all nuclear weapons testing. The
CTBT is a giant step toward a safer future, when no nuclear weapons will be detonated anywhere
on earth.

Ratifying the CTBT would bring a four decade bipartisan quest to a close -- and open a new era
of security for the American people. Beginning with President Eisenhower, who hoped that a test
ban would be his final and most lasting gift to his country and echoed in the words and actions of
President Kennedy and President Clinton, American presidents of both parties have believed a
comprehensive test ban is profoundly in America's interests.

President Eisenhower:

"I am of the belief, if you could have a ban on all [nuclear] testing that everybody could have
confidence in, it would be a very, very fine thing to stop this. . ."

February 3, 1960
The President's News Conference
Washington, D.C.

"With both sides of this divided world in possession of unbelievably destructive weapons,
mankind approaches a state where mutual annihilation becomes a possibility. No other fact of
today's world equals this in importance. . ."

"We must strive to break the calamitous cycle . . . which, if unchecked, could spiral into nuclear
disaster; the ultimate insanity . . . we must find somewhere to begin."

"Another avenue may be through the reopening . . . of negotiations looking to a controlled ban on
the testing of nuclear weapons."

January 7, 1960
Annual Message to the Congress on the State of the Union
Washington, D.C.

President Kennedy:

"Every man, woman and child lives under a nuclear sword of Damocles, hanging by the slenderest
of threads, capable of being cut at any moment by accident or miscalculation or by madness. The
weapons of war must be abolished before they abolish us . . . The logical place to begin is a treaty
assuring the end of nuclear tests of all kinds . . ."

September 25, 1961
United Nations General Assembly,
United Nations, New York, New York

"The conclusion of such a treaty [to end nuclear tests] would check the spiraling arms race in one
of its most dangerous areas . . . It would increase our security -- it would decrease the prospects
of war."

June 10, 1963
Commencement Address at American University
Washington, D.C.

"Yesterday a shaft of light cut into the darkness. Negotiations were concluded in Moscow on a
treaty to ban all nuclear tests in the atmosphere, in outer space, and under water . . . it is an
important first step -- a step toward peace -- a step towards reason -- a step away from war."

July 26, 1963
Address to the American People on the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
The White House, Washington, D.C.

President Clinton:

". . . I was honored to be the first of 146 leaders to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, our
commitment to end all nuclear tests for all time -- the longest-sought, hardest-fought prize in the
history of arms control. It will help to prevent the nuclear powers from developing more
advanced and more dangerous weapons. It will limit the possibilities for other states to acquire
such devices . . . Our common goal should be to enter the CTBT into force as soon as possible,
and I ask for all of you to support that goal."

September 22, 1997
52nd Session of the United Nations General Assembly,
United Nations, New York, New York